Polysaccharide gene transfection agents

Wahid Khan, Hossein Hosseinkhani, Diana Ickowicz, Po Da Hong, Da Shyong Yu, Abraham J. Domb*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

107 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gene delivery is a promising technique that involves in vitro or in vivo introduction of exogenous genes into cells for experimental and therapeutic purposes. Successful gene delivery depends on the development of effective and safe delivery vectors. Two main delivery systems, viral and non-viral gene carriers, are currently deployed for gene therapy. While most current gene therapy clinical trials are based on viral approaches, non-viral gene medicines have also emerged as potentially safe and effective for the treatment of a wide variety of genetic and acquired diseases. Non-viral technologies consist of plasmid-based expression systems containing a gene associated with the synthetic gene delivery vector. Polysaccharides compile a large family of heterogenic sequences of monomers with various applications and several advantages as gene delivery agents. This chapter, compiles the recent progress in polysaccharide based gene delivery, it also provides an overview and recent developments of polysaccharide employed for in vitro and in vivo delivery of therapeutically important nucleotides, e.g. plasmid DNA and small interfering RNA.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4224-4232
Number of pages9
JournalActa Biomaterialia
Volume8
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2012

Keywords

  • Delivery agents
  • Gene therapy
  • Plasmid DNA
  • Polysaccharides
  • siRNA

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